Culture Wars/Current Controversies

The Moral Case for Letting Trans Kids Change Their Bodies

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In recent years, as attacks on trans kids have intensified across the U.S., Andrea Long Chu has thought often about when and how to weigh in. The occasion of Judith Butler’s forthcoming book, Who’s Afraid of Gender?, made her think deeply about what’s missing in the current discourse. Butler’s theory of gender as a construct has influenced much of the conversation around trans rights — namely, the idea that there’s a mismatch between one’s gender identity and their biological sex. This emphasis on gender has given the anti-trans movement an opening to say trans advocates are denying the material facts of sex. Here, Andrea argues that we need to move beyond gender as the only framework for understanding why someone might want to transition and to reimagine biological sex itself as a site of freedom. “To confront the reality of biological sex is not, by definition, to swear fealty to that reality,” she writes. “No one knows this better than a child who wishes to have their biological sex changed.” It’s a rigorous, challenging, soul-stirring piece of criticism — the kind of writing that can reshape how you think about the world. I’m grateful to Andrea for summoning the courage to write it.

—Gazelle Emami, editorial director, New York

Freedom of Sex The moral case for letting trans kids change their bodies.
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